Jeff Adair: Breaking racial and gender stereotypes

Saturday

May 24, 2008 at 12:01 AMMay 24, 2008 at 4:59 PM

A group of bicyclists, a mix of young and middle-agers, is riding through the streets of a major American city dressed in similar outfits. They all happen to be black, members of Major Taylor Bicycling Club of Minnesota.

Jeff Adair

A group of bicyclists, a mix of young and middle-agers, is riding through the streets of a major American city dressed in similar outfits. They all happen to be black, members of Major Taylor Bicycling Club of Minnesota.

They're having fun. Everyone's obeying the traffic rules. A cop rides by, and surprised by the sight gives an off-hand comment, "That's a new kind of gang."

This tale, mentioned at a recent panel discussion on race and sports, is just one of many examples in which people do things seen by some as out of the norm for the particular ethnic group or gender.

It could be a female who fixes cars or is a firefighter, a man who teaches kindergarten or is a nurse, or an African American who sings in the opera or country music.

These individuals are sometimes criticized and other times lifted up and called exceptional. We celebrate their achievements, which is good, but at the same time adhere to old stereotypes.

At the same panel discussion, the moderator, a Boston columnist, told us about the time he spoke to a group of youths and mentioned that his hobbies included bird watching. The kids were shocked. "A black guy who goes around with binoculars watching birds -- come on, you've gotta be kidding," was their response.

Another example: I recall a story I did in 2004 on Framingham native Audrey L. White, a violinist who has performed all over Europe, conducted youth orchestras, and once ran a program teaching string instruments to inner-city children.

When she started the program, she called several donors to try to obtain funding, and the typical response was: "Why do you want a program in Roxbury. They don't want to play violin. Why not jazz?"

"And this was in the '90s," she told me.

The message seems to be that blacks aren't supposed to enjoy bike riding. We're not supposed to enjoy bird watching, or classical music, either. We should stick to sports like basketball, and music like R&B or rap.

The article "Breaking the Sound Barriers" in the May issue of Ebony Magazine busts some of those musical stereotypes, showcasing such black artists as Canadian opera star Measha Bruegger-gosman, British songbird Corinne Bailey Rae, and country music singer Miko Marks.

"It's an insult to human beings to classify them by color and culture, so let's not pass that sort of tradition of separation and segregation down to the arts," rock/funk/gospel artist Ben Harper is quoted in the article.

Although my three examples have to with the black community, stereotyping happens in all racial groups and crosses genders. And it's done by both those inside and outside the group.

It happens in sports. Race car Danica Patrick took a lot of ribbing and sexist criticism following her victory in Japan last month, becoming the first female to win an IndyCar race.

It happens in politics. I'm sure in her run for the White House Hillary Clinton has had to deal with situations -- or had to answer questions -- that she wouldn't have if it she were a man. And no matter what some people may say, there's no doubt in my mind Barack Obama has lost votes because of his skin color. Of course, that's out and out racism, not just folks adhering to stereotypes.

It happens in business. It happens in the entertainment industry. It happens in practically every area of society. Unfortunately, it also happens in education where sometimes standards are lowered for minorities, and often Latino or black students who take school seriously are accused by their peers of acting white.

It's like we put people in certain boxes. They're supposed to stay there. Those who go outside the box are seen as oddballs. I wonder why is that?

Jeff Adair is a Daily News editor and writer. He can be reached at jadair@cnc.com.

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